Harry Potter and the School of Change
by WavlynWarfir
Summary: During the summer, Harry is chosen by a special stone. Once at Hogwarts, he learns about the currents of magic. Will this help him defeat Voldemort or will it lead to his own destruction?***R/R*** -PG just to be safe- (also called HPSOC or Hipsock)
1. The Necklace and the Stone

Harry Potter and the School of Change (1/?) **Author Name:**  Wavlyn Warfir 

**Author E-Mail:** agathad@look.ca

**Category:** Action/Adventure

**Keywords:** 5th year, Harry, Special Powers, Hogwarts, Order of the Phoenix

**Rating:** PG-13 (just to be safe)

**Spoilers:** All Four Books

**Summary:** During the summer, Harry is chosen by a special stone. Once at Hogwarts, he learns about the currents of magic. Will this help him defeat Voldemort or will it lead to his own destruction?

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. May also have similar theories of magic introduced in the books of Mercedes Lackey. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 1: The Necklace and Stone 

Harry Potter was sitting in his bed, beaten flashlight in one hand, quill in the other. Leaning over his school text, he quickly jotted something down and with a flourish, finished what ever he was writing. One can suspect that his writing was not normal, nor his school text, for you see, Harry Potter is a wizard.

He is no ordinary wizard either, for he is the "Boy Who Lived", the only person ever to survive the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. He also happens to have the most evil wizard in a century trying to kill him.

 But right now, he was only worried about finishing his homework. He had just finished his potions essay, "_Explain the uses and effects of the Polyjuice Potion and similar potions._" Assigned by the meanest professor in the school, Professor Snape.

 Smirking, he got up silently and went over to his old trunk, remembering his second year and how he had used the potion to sneak into the Slytherin common room, one of the 4 houses at Hogwarts, his school. Putting his book and assignment carefully away, he heard a tapping at his window and then a sudden boom!. 

Startled, he scrambled as quietly as he could over his trunk and to his window. Checking the digital clock on the bookshelf, he noticed it was 12:05. He had been fifteen for 5 minutes already! Turning back, he opened the window and watched while several owls flew over to his bed and perched on the bed, all except for one. This one flew straight over his head and was now hooting excitedly, if not a little dazed.

Must have been him at the window… Grabbing the tiny owl, named Pig, he got the note off its leg and let Pig go. Pig, sensing his freedom, went straight to Harry's own owl, Hedwig's, bowl. Shaking his head, he walked over to his bed and sat down, avoiding any owls in the process. Taking all the packages and letters off the owls, 3 official owls, 2 with Hogwarts crests tattooed on their legs flew out the still open window. 

            He decided to open his letter from Ron first.

_Dear Harry,_

_            Happy Birthday! How are ya? Muggles treating you fine? Errol and Hermes brought your gift; it's from all of us. You'd better like it! Dad found it on one of his muggle searches and we all fixed it up. Herm'll be proud of me; I actually went to the library! Tell us how you like it!_

_                                                                        -Ron_

Smiling, he went to the very large package with, in bold letters, Weasley, and ripped off the wrapping, being thankful for the snoring coming from the other room._ A tornado couldn't wake them._

Opening the box, he gasped. Inside, there was a slim trunk, with 6 keyholes. Grinning, he took the keys out and opened each compartment one by one. In the last one, there was a small room. Inside, he could see another box in the corner. 

Wondering what more there could be, thinking about how the Weasleys had already outdone themselves, he climbed carefully in and walked to the box in a couple of steps. On top, there was a piece of paper.

_To our Primary Investor,_

_            We at Weasley Wizardly Wheezes wish to inform you that thanks to your generous donation, you have been accepted as an anonymous partner, receiving 20% of all profits and an equal part in all decisions involving the company. We wish to thank you for your time and hope for a fruitful future._

_                                                                        -Fred and George Weasley_

_                                                                                    Co-Presidents of WWW_

_P.S. The box is full of several prototypes and we wish for your opinion on these items. _

Never thought Gred and Forge could sound so professional… Shrugging, he put the paper back down and opened the box. 

            It was brimming with seemingly innocent objects, their only giveaway being each had a paper beside it with bright bold letters saying 'Warning, Read before Experimenting'. Grinning, he looked at some papers with heading such as: Syllable Scones, which made you take every other syllable out, or Deep Peep Pie, which made you peep uncontrollaby like a chick for 5 or so minutes.

            After several minutes of sifting through the various pranks, he decided to look at his other presents. 

            The next one he saw was a heavy-looking package, with Hedwig glaring balefully at it. _Must be from Hermione. Looks like another book…_

            Opening the letter first, he skimmed it and smiled.

_            Dear Harry,_

_Happy Birthday! I just came back from Italy. It was fascinating! Ron thinks I went to visit Viktor, and he won't believe that we're just friends. Anyway, I think you'll really like this book, it's about…never mind, you'll see. _

                                                                        _Hope you're well,_

_                                                                                    Hermione_

Slightly confused, he opened the package and gasped for the second time. 

It read:

An Idiot's Guide to Animagi 

_By _

_Farula Swillinger_

He looked inside, it had everything about turning into an Animagus and steps even a real idiot could follow. Grinning, he opened the 4th compartment in his trunk and decided that that would be his compartment for "unusual" things. 

            He quickly opened one of the letters that had arrived with a Hogwarts owl. It said on the front in barely legible scrawl _Harry Potter._

            He smiled; this was from the Gamekeeper of Hogwarts, Hagrid. He read through the letter and opened his gift. He pulled out a soft doeskin wand holster with an imprinted stag and lily. He wiped a single tear out of his eye and put the holster gently to the side. 

            He only had two more packages left, one, he could see, was from Dumbledore, and the other simply had Padfoot written on the side. He smiled, Padfoot was really Sirius Black, escaped convict, and also Harry's godfather. He decided to open Dumbledore's letter last and grabbed Sirius' letter. He read the letter, learning that he was currently staying at Moony's and that Dumbledore had found and given him Crouch's Invisibility Cloak, so Harry shouldn't worry. He also said that Harry should study extra hard and that his gift would help a lot with that.

            Harry opened Sirius' gift and pulled out a small book called _The Ultimate Collection of Wizardly Usefulness. _Looking at it strangely, wondering why Sirius would give him a book, he opened it carefully, seeing blinking instructions, saying that he could simply flip through the lists of charms, potions, and other things and tapping the name with a wand would reveal full instructions and information on the subject. You could also tap the search button while thinking of a certain thing you want information on and it would come up with a list of entries closest to the thing you wanted. He decided that Sirius came up with a useful gift indeed and vowed to read as much as he could and practice them when he got to Hogwarts. 

            He looked to the last letter and the small package beside it. He delicately reached and grabbed the letter and package and opened the letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY  

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)_

_            Dear Mr. Potter,_

_We wish to inform you that you have been accepted as one of the Gryffindor Prefects of your year. Due to circumstances, there will be 3 prefects per house. The other Gryffindor prefects in your year are Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger. Your prefect pin will inform you of prefect meetings and changed passwords. _

_            I also have a charmed necklace given to me by your mother to be given to you on your 15th birthday. It will mask any of your magical activity. I suggest you practice certain duelling charms before the school as we are restarting the Duelling Club with myself and Professor Flitwick teaching. We are also holding a new class which is mandatory for all 5th years and up. Your supplies list is included._

_                                                                        Professor Albus Dumbledore_

_                                                                                                            Headmaster_

_Dumbledore's letting me do magic over the holidays?!? _ He looked curiously toward the package on his lap and slowly opened the package. He looked at the wax paper and unwrapped that too. Inside there was the necklace.

            The necklace was made of shining platinum in the form of a crest. Harry knew for some reason that this was the Potter crest. In the middle, there was a rearing lion and phoenix intertwining with twin wands criss-crossing behind them. The wands were shooting sparks, which were represented by miniscule red stones and tiny specks of gold. In each of the corners, there was a precious stone that glimmered unnaturally. There was an emerald, a sapphire, a ruby, and a diamond. He weighed the necklace and discovered that it weighed almost nothing. On an impulse, he pulled the necklace around his neck and it automatically seemed that it was always there.

            Grinning widely, he picked up his was and tried a simple levitating charm. 

The book Hermione gave him started levitating and Harry flew it around his room several times before he placed the book back into his trunk. While he was doing the charm, the necklace had glowed and all the stones picked up an inner light. When he finished the charm, the necklace stopped glowing.

Waiting a few minutes and realizing that no ministry owl would come, he strapped on the wand holster and placed his wand inside. Hiding it in his worn pyjamas, he sat down on his bed and pulled out Sirius' gift. 

            He decided to go to the duelling section and began reading about different types of duelling and strategies. He just got to _"So, you wanna duel defensively?"_ before he began to nod off.

*           *            *__

Harry woke to the annoying dinging of Dudley's old alarm clock. Rubbing his emerald eyes, he picked up his glasses and sat up. Looking over to the worn dresser, he sighed and got up to get dressed in Dudley's old clothes. Once dressed, he looked to his desk and saw his letters, and decided he would reply to them later. He grabbed his supplies list and his wallet and looked around for anything else he needed.

He opened his door and creeped downstairs, into the kitchen. Grabbing a piece of toast, he momentarily stopped and listened to the snoring upstairs. Opening the door, he slipped outside and closed it silently behind. 

He sat on the front lawn and started to warm up for his daily run. Ever since he came back from Hogwarts, he had started running daily and going to the local community gym on Saturdays for the free karate classes.  He decided that any type of defence Voldemort might not expect was a good defence. 

Done with his warm-up, he started running, heading for the library where he worked almost everyday. He decided to get a job to keep his mind off Voldemort and to start earning money for himself, instead of living off his inheritance.  Another perk of working at the library was the library happened to have a small magic section closed off to muggles. This had probably surprised him the most, that Little Whinging had a fairly large wizarding population and even had a small alley of magical shops, called Whinging Way. The library was completely managed by wizards and backed the alley itself. 

He ran through Whinging Way and stopped at the back door of the library. Seeing Justin, the old wizard who managed the library, he waved and walked over.

"Hi Justin, should I go to the front right now?"

"No, No, t'day's yer berthday, go oot an' 'ave fun. Heere's th' pay fer th' past week. "

"Are you sure? It's ok if I work today, you know."

Justin thought for a minute and opened his mouth to speak.  "Hmm…we'vn gotten sum real ole' books an' we've gotten no room for them naow. Ken ye go through dem an' throw oot whichever ye don' want? Ye ken keep whichever'd ya like. The're bay de magic section, since de muggles ken't look at sum dem. Dere's sum udder ole' stuff ye can 'ave if ye wan'. " 

Harry nodded and walked over to the section with the magic books. Looking down, he saw a large ragged box filled with all sorts of books. Beside the box, there was a large pile of very old-looking things. 

Pulling out an old wooden stool from the pile of junk, he sat on it and found that it was very comfortable and soft, for a stool. He decided that it had a softening charm on it and that it would be useful for when he was sorting the books. 

Next, he pulled out a ragged canvas bag and looked inside. He put his hand inside and discovered that it was an bottomless bag. He put this bag aside, thinking that it would be very useful for shopping. 

He continued sifting through the objects, he decided that even though everything was old and ragged, and most things even broken, everything could be very useful and could be fixed easily with a little magic. There was a cracked foe-glass, and ancient crystal ball cracked in several spots, a huge iron sneakoscope, an extremely old-looking Wizard's Wireless, a backpack made of cracked leather that was feather-light no matter what you put in it, and even a tiny magical tent with a small bathroom, an old smelly bed, and a very rough-hewn table and chair. Everything had a very musty smell, but he supposed that some spell could get rid of it. There were some very useful muggle things too, so he decided to keep those too.

 _Everything would probably take a very long time to fix, so that was probably why this person decided to give these away_, he reasoned. Putting everything into the ragged canvas bag and then putting that into the old leather backpack, he moved his stool next to the box of books.

Inside the box, there seemed to be hundreds of books, some without covers, but most just very ragged looking. On top, there was the whole collection of Lockhart books and some very boring books on American politics. He automatically put those books in the "garbage" pile and looked underneath. These looked much more promising. There were many old muggle books that were mostly full of poems or were classics. 

There were a great lot of magical books too. He pulled out his supplies list and looked at it.

_            Fifth year students will require:_

Þ _1 focus stone (customized to yourself)_

Þ _1 silver or pewter necklace, ring, or bracelet_

Þ _3 muggle exercise suits_

Þ _1 small mirror_

Þ _1 magically enhanced sword (appropriate size)_

Þ _Refills for Potions Kit _

_Books:_

Þ _Mind Over Magic: A Practical Approach_

Þ _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5_

Þ _Advanced Potions_

Þ _The Basic Rune Dictionary_

Þ _Foreign Magic: A Basic Guide_

Þ _Animate Transfiguration _

Þ _Practical Defence_

Þ _Muggle Methods of Defence_

Þ _A Theorem of Magic_

_That's a lot of stuff! I wonder what it's all for…_ Shaking his head, he dove into the box and dug out several books that were on the list. He had also found a great many other interesting books, most of which Hermione would fawn over. There were several potion books, a thick volume on pranks, many spell books, and many other books on more subjects than he could count. There also were many back issues of all types of magazines, The Charming Journal, Transfiguration Today, The Quidditch Times, Witch Weekly, and others.

            Most of the books and magazines in the box he had decided to keep, so he stuffed them all into the canvas bag, which he put again in the leather backpack. 

The things he didn't take he put back into the box and brought it out to Justin. 

            "Did purty good wit th' clean oot, didn' ya?" Justin inquired

            "I don't know why somebody was throwing all that away. Most of it just needed a little fixing and would be good as new!" Harry speculated. 

            "Oy wuz cleenin' oot de hoose an' found awl dat stuff. Oy had newer or better stuff, so oy decided ta throw et oot. An de library goot a huge shipmen' o' books, so de old wuns 'adda go. Might 'as well 'ive 'em ta sumone else who could use et den throw et all away, roight?" 

            "I guess…Thank you for letting me sift through all that and letting me have whatever I wanted. Now I need to go buy the rest of the stuff on my supply list.  Good-bye!" Harry waved and went out the door, list in one hand and an old backpack on his back.

            Harry decided to see if the tiny bookstore in the alley had the rest of the books he needed. He found the clerk and asked about the books. He smiled and nodded and came out of the back room with a heavy box with several huge volumes in it. He stared at the books wearily while he paid for them. After paying, he stuffed the books into the bags and went to the knick-knacks store across the alley. 

When he went inside, an elderly lady named Phyllis greeted him. 

            "Hello Harry. What are you looking for today?" she asked in her gentle voice.

            "It says on my list that I need a focus stone. What is it and can I get one here?" 

            "A focus stone?? They want you to have a focus stone?? That's rather strange. To answer your question, focus stones focus your magic, like wands, but with less control. They magnify your magic too, if used correctly. They can be dangerous too, so that's why we use wands instead. And yes, I do sell focus stones. I have a talent of making them, but since they aren't used often, I need to have my store of knick-knacks to support me." She led him over to a room full of large polished stones.

            " Now, this will be rather like choosing a wand. The right stone will glow for you. Let's start, shall we? Hold out your wand hand, palm up, please."

She went to a shelf covered in polished stones and picked up a jade shaped in a pyramid. Placing it in his hand, she grabbed it back and took a sapphire shaped in a cylinder. As soon as it touched his hand, she pulled it back.             This continued for a long time, until almost all the stones had been tried out. She sighed and finally went to a mahogany box, carved with swirling designs. She slowly opened the box and gently pulled the stone out.

            It was possibly the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was a perfect sphere that was perfectly balanced. The stone was swirling with what looked like a liquid form of light. It sometimes slowly faded into different colours, but always resembled liquefied light. As she neared Harry, it started glowing brighter and brighter. As she placed it in Harry's hand, the room suddenly exploded with light and a glow surrounded Harry, which could be seen when the light faded down.

            "Well, I've never seen that happen." Breathed Phyllis, "That stone is my life's pride. Each stone-carver creates a stone like that once in their life, and most are not chosen. They have special powers in them. When you use it, you will have enhanced control over the magic and could probably see the raw magic through it too. If you touch your wand to that type of stone, it will transform into a staff, which is several times stronger than before. This stone has accepted you as something equivalent to a companion, so it will seek to protect you. Use the stone well, and good luck in your following years." 

            Harry, still feeling the warmth from the stone, put the stone in the mahogany box and put the box gently in his bag. Dazed, he pulled out several galleons out of his wallet mechanically and walked out of the shop.

            He made it back to the Dursleys safely and walked up the stairs into his bedroom, ignoring Petunia's cries about the old backpack.

*           *            *

The Chapter Has Now Ended


	2. A Visit from Someone

Harry Potter and the School of Change (2/?) **Author Name:**  Wavlyn Warfir 

**Author E-Mail:** agathad@look.ca

**Category:** Action/Adventure

**Keywords:** 5th year, Harry, Special Powers, Hogwarts, Order of the Phoenix

**Rating:** PG-13 (just to be safe)

**Spoilers:** All Four Books

**Summary:** During the summer, Harry is chosen by a special stone. Once at Hogwarts, he learns about the currents of magic. Will this help him defeat Voldemort or will it lead to his own destruction?

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. May also have similar theories of magic introduced in the books of Mercedes Lackey. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 2: A Visit from Someone 

The next day, Harry finally replied to the letters, asking Dumbledore and Ron if he was allowed to stay at the Weasley's. He then got dressed and began his daily run. 

As it was Saturday, today he would be going to his weekly karate class. Harry seemed to have a talent for karate and was already going for his red belt. Also, on Saturdays and Sundays, he didn't have to work at the library, so he would have the whole day to organize his new books and start fixing the other objects. He also decided to buy the rest of what he needed that he could get in Whinging Way. 

When he arrived at the community centre, he ran up the front steps and found that the doors were locked. He saw a notice on the board and began to read.

Closed on Saturday and Sunday for readying of the Peterson Reception. All Classes Cancelled

_Cancelled?? But the tests were today! Ah, well._ Harry turned and started running into the little town. 

When he got to the entrance of Whinging Way, he pressed the tongue of the decorative gargoyle blocking the space between a dingy restaurant and a smelly antique store. The gargoyle stepped aside and revealed a set of stairs going into the ground. Walking down the staircase and through the dark passageway, he soon met another set of stairs going up. Going up the stairs, he emerged into a small alley looking a lot like a small Diagon Alley. 

There was the Whinging Way's equivalent of Flourish and Blotts, Vexed Volumes, Phyllis' knick-knack store, and a strange looking booth that connected to the Diagon Alley stores and to Gringott's. This booth, looked like one of those muggle photo booths in malls from the outside, but inside, there was a large screen and a basket on the side. To work it, you tapped what you wanted with your wand. This is where he went now. 

When inside the booth, he pulled out his Gringott's key and placed it in the keyhole. As soon as he did this, the blank screen before him lit up and asked him if he wanted to deposit or withdraw. There was a flashing sign that asked him to sign up for the New Gringott's Charge Card, No more having to stop for that extra couple of knuts! He decided to sign up for the charge card and soon a slot appeared and his new charge card appeared. On it, he could see a picture of raining money bouncing around his name. 

Next, he decided to but his potions refills. He exited the Gringott's screen and tapped the screen with his wand where it said Apothecary. The word glowed and the screen switched to a list of the items sold at the store. He tapped Year 5 Hogwarts Refills Kit and it came up with a list of the items in the kit and a list of different ways to pay. He tapped ok and them placed his new charge card into the slot. The screen started flashing Thank You for Shopping with the Diabooth, Please Use Again! Harry waited a couple of minutes and in the basket on the side of the booth appeared a wrapped package. Knowing that was the refills package, he placed the package into his bag.

Deciding to buy the rest in Whinging Way, he pulled his card out of the slot and stepped out the booth. He looked at the card closely and read that the card could also be used in muggle stores. He walked out to Muggle Whinging.                 Walking down the street into the cleaner part of town, he saw an old knick-knack store that looked like Phyllis' except it was all muggle. He wandered in and began looking through the narrow aisles. He soon found an old silver bracelet that looked like silver tree branches twirling around his arm. He also found a mirror that matched it, tree branches twirling around the round mirror. Harry walked to the front and met an old man that looked ready to keel over at any moment. He quickly bought the bracelet and mirror and walked out. 

Then he walked across the street to a clothing store. Looking around, he saw a teenage girl looking at him. He decided to walk over and ask where the exercise clothes were. 

"Excuse me, can you tell me where I can find the exercise clothes?" Harry inquired.

"Oh, aren't you cute! Come along, I'll help you choose." She then grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him over to a large rack of clothing in assorted colours. She started mumbling to herself, sometimes looking over at Harry and finally, she pulled out a giant stack of clothing. 

"Hmm…those should be good. Go try them on. The dressing room is right over there." She handed Harry the stack of clothing, which showed she was much stronger than she looked, as Harry sagged under the pile and he had been lifting boxes of books all summer. He staggered over to the dressing room and started the long process of choosing his new clothes. Every time he changed, he had to show the growing number of girls how he looked. They told him their opinion, then shoved him back into the dressing room. This process took well over an hour and when done, Harry looked quite tired. The troupe of girls took the large pile of clothes they chose for him to the cash and another took an equally large pile into the forest of clothes. He quickly paid and went outside, where he stuffed the many bags of clothing into his bottomless bag. 

Deciding to take the bus home, he took some muggle change from his pocket and stood at the bus stop until the bus came. He clambered on and paid for the trip. Sitting on one of the benches, he took out the old bracelet and began to examine it closely. 

When the bus stopped at the bus stop nearest to the Dursleys, he placed the bracelet back in the bag and clambered off the bus, which drove away promptly. Harry started walking back to the Dursleys home, while he reminisced on the day the Dursleys stopped bothering him.

*           *           *

"Boy! Get down here at once! What's the meaning of this?? Tell me boy!" Vernon Dursley screamed upstairs. A raven-haired 15-year old ran down the stairs and stopped in front of Vernon's red face.

"Tell you the meaning of what?" The boy asked, sounding slightly nasty toward the man.

"This…This letter! Who is this Voldiemort and what does he have to do with you??" Vernon fumed, holding a crumpled letter in his fist, which he threw at the boy.

"Voldemort? Why do you want to know about him?" The boy calmly read the letter and started to talk to the red-faced man.

"I see. Let's see…Voldemort's the most feared wizard in the wizarding world right now. He was the one who killed my parents and he tried to kill me. He failed and almost killed himself. I'm really famous in the wizarding world and everyone knows my name. He's been recuperating for the past 13 years and has been trying to kill me since I was 11. I've been the only one who isn't his follower to face him and live. He's the one who got me stuck here. Is that enough?" The boy nastily said. 

Vernon, who was extremely shocked, thinking of how he had been treating the one of the most famous wizards alive, simply waved the boy off, who ran straight back upstairs. 

*           *           *

By the time he was finished with the memory, he was just passing a house that was still being built. In a pile by the street, he saw many pieces of scrap wood. Deciding to build a couple of bookcases, he grabbed the largest pieces and stuffed them into the bag. He waved to the work crew and started walking toward the Dursleys again. Trying to remember his lessons on enlargement, he didn't notice that he was already in his room. 

            Dumping everything out onto his bed, he began by dumping the wood in one corner of his room and carrying the bracelet and mirror to his desk. Then he started sorting the huge pile of clothes taking over most of his bed. He was interrupted by a high shriek and a large thump, which must have been Aunt Petunia fainting. His door started opening and he saw a clump of white hair through the keyhole.

            Dumbledore opened the door enough to squeeze through, then closed the door behind him. Harry looked up at him with a confused look on his face.

            "Ah, Harry, I just wanted to check on you personally to see how you were doing. How are you doing?" Dumbledore asked as he cleared some room on the bed, piling the clothed dangerously high.

            "I'm doing fine sir. The job you got me at the library is great. I didn't know that Whinging had a wizarding population at all. I've already gotten everything I need, well, more than I need, as you can see." Harry waved his hand at all the clothes overtaking his bed.

            "Everything you say? Even your sword?" Dumbledore's eyes seemed to twinkle more as he said this.

            "I forgot the sword! I completely forgot! I can't believe it. How could I forget something that big?" Harry smacked his head and looked up at Dumbledore. "What's the sword for, anyways?"

            "Our new DADA teacher enjoys sword-fighting and it's gotten her out of trouble several times. As a saying I know goes, He who is prepared for everything meets nothing. She's the one who told everyone to get exercise clothes too. She's going to teach many different methods of fighting and duelling too. I suggest you bring your karate clothes too. I think she will be teaching martial arts too. "

            "But aren't swords dangerous?? What if someone stabs themselves?"

            "That's why she asked for magically enhanced swords. Those swords accept some charms that muggle swords don't."

            "Ok, I see. Will I be able to go to the Weasleys soon?" Harry switched to another topic.

            "Yes, you can go next Sunday." Dumbledore answered, then swiftly changed the topic,

"Harry, I don't think you would have found the right sword for you, even if you tried. That is why I brought this." Dumbledore revealed what he had been holding the whole time. Harry gasped. It was Gryffindor's sword, which he had pulled out of the Sorting Hat in his second year.

            "The hat told me that you were chosen by the sword to be it's carrier and that I was to give it to you when you were ready. As you will be learning how to use a sword, I decided it was time for you to have it. " Dumbledore handed the sword hilt-first to Harry, who carefully took it, like it was made of glass.

            Dumbledore smiled and said good-bye, which went unnoticed by Harry. There was a pop! and the spot Dumbledore had been sitting became vacant again. 

*           *           *

            The next day, Harry went to work as Justin asked him to fill in for him, since he was going to a Wizard's Library Convention. The library didn't usually have many people visiting on Sunday, so he began looking up several books on sword fighting, both muggle and magical. 

Magical sword fighting differed from muggle fighting in several ways. The swords could act like very weak wands, sometimes sending spells at the opponent without initiation from their wielder. Some swords could heal during battle, while others reversed the healing process on their opponents, spreading virus through their system during the duel. Some swords could de-materialize themselves, letting the other sword pass through without blocking, then quickly re-materialize to stab the opponent. 

When Harry finished, he went to Vexed Volumes and browsed through the books, not finding anything he really wanted. He walked around Whinging Way for the next couple of hours, eating at a cute little café, and then deciding to go back to the Dursleys to work on some spells.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, Harry first locking the door, then going into the room in his trunk, just to be safe. While he had been sorting the books he had found a large old tome earlier full of dart arts spells and counters to them. This'll give me the jump on Malfoy. Heh, imagine the look on his face when I counter one of his father's pet spells.

He quickly mastered a basic shield spell, and counters to several dark arts spells that seemed to be ones that Malfoy was guaranteed to use.  He then went to the book Sirius gave him and searched through it for spells to transfigure the boards from the construction site into some bookcases, and maybe a chair to sit on, as the floor was rather hard.

Harry quickly found what he was looking for, so he started transfiguring the boards into bookcases. 

5 hours later, he had finished the 2 bookcases, even though they were rough and quite ugly, would serve well until he bought some real ones.

Realizing it was very late, he climbed out of the trunk and onto the old bed, where he promptly fell asleep.

*           *           *

The next day, Harry quickly ran through his morning routine, since he had slept in a bit late. Justin, who just came back from the convention, waved happily, looking through some of the books he must have gotten at the convention.

Harry waved back and got to sorting the books that had been returned. After he finished this, he walked to the counter and sat there, waiting for someone who needed any help.

Over the course of the day, he had helped a group of small boys, a kind old lady, and a very stern business man, who looked like he had better things to do than sit in a library. 

When Justin let him go, he walked through the muggle section of Whinging, where he had a mocha latte at a small coffee shop. He had developed a liking for coffee and hoped they had good coffee at Hogwarts. When finished, he continued to wander through Whinging, enjoying the lethargic pace of the town.

He was soon at the Dursleys, and quickly locked the door with his wand. Walking to his trunk, he climbed into the room and began sorting the books. He soon finished and sat on a block of wood. He looked though Sirius' book for cushioning charms. Quickly finding it, he attempted it on several smaller blocks of wood, which became spongy after several mistakes, one of which turned the block into an electric blue mouse, which he took out and left outside. 

Finally succeeding on his large block of wood, he sat on it and began reading about foe-glasses, planning on fixing it before going to the Weasleys. After an hour of reading, he decided to finally sort and pack all the clothes he had gotten. When Dumbledore had left, he had shoved all the clothes into a pile taking up almost a quarter of the room. 

This alone took the rest of the day; he thanked the Weasleys again, this time for the expanding compartments. Even then, Harry was surprised the clothes all fit in one compartments. When he finished packing, it was already almost midnight, so he climbed into the bed and slept. 

Over the next couple of days, he went through the same routine, the only notable things being getting the port-key to the Weasleys and fixing the foe-glass.

            Now, he was waiting for 10:00, as Dumbledore told him in a letter that the port-key would activate precisely at 10 am. He looked up at Dudley's old alarm clock, but before he could read the time, he was jerked from behind the navel into a swirl of colour.

When Harry landed, he looked up, expecting to see the cozy living room of the Weasley's, but instead, he saw he was in a small stone room with one ancient wooden door in front of him. On instinct, he took out his wand. _No way Voldemort's getting me unarmed this time…_  He looked around the room for anything else and his eyes landed on the trunk. He started walking over to the trunk and opened it as silently as possible, looking for his invisibility cloak. Pulling it out, he covered himself and shrunk the trunk with a murmured spell.

            He put the trunk in his pocket and walked to the door, suddenly remembering that it might squeak, so he put a quick silencing spell on the hinges and sneaked out the door.

            Once out the door, Harry creeped along the dark corridor and stopped at a non-descript door. He could hear a murmuring of voices inside and he began to silently open the door a creak and saw…

*           *           *

The Chapter Has Now Ended


	3. Not at Hogwarts Yet

Harry Potter and the School of Change (3/?) **Author Name:**  Wavlyn Warfir 

**Author E-Mail:** agathad@look.ca

**Category:** Action/Adventure

**Keywords:** 5th year, Harry, Special Powers, Hogwarts, Order of the Phoenix

**Rating:** PG-13 (just to be safe)

**Spoilers:** All Four Books

**Summary:** During the summer, Harry is chosen by a special stone. Once at Hogwarts, he learns about the currents of magic. Will this help him defeat Voldemort or will it lead to his own destruction?

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. May also have similar theories of magic introduced in the books of Mercedes Lackey. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 3:Not at Hogwarts Yet 

            …the Weasleys. They were all sitting nervously around a large ornate fireplace, except for Ron, who was currently pacing, stopping, looking at his watch, and pacing again._ Why are they here? Hmm…_

            Looking at the fireplace, he finally figured it out. _They thought I'd be coming by Floo! Dumbledore must have forgot to tell them. Might as well "show up". _

            Harry silently padded toward Ron and positioned himself behind him, taking off the invisibility cloak and stuffing it in his pocket..

            "Boo."

            Ron and everyone jumped and looked around for the source of the sound. Harry smirked and waved his hand in front of Ron's face. Ron, finally snapping out of his shock, turned around and fainted. Harry looked at Ron's form quizzically, but before he began to bend down to wake Ron up, he was, well, tackled, by the rest of the Weasley's, who were asking a rampage of questions, How'd you get here being the major one. Harry loved the Weasleys, but not enough to die from strangulation. 

            "Stop! _Cough _I need to breathe!!" Harry tried to wiggle out of the Weasley's grasp, trying not to step on the still unconscious Ron. Just then, Hermione came out the fireplace, dusting herself off then looking up, shock written over her face as she saw a sea of red with a tiny tuft of black sticking out the top.

Dropping her trunk she ran to the mob and started trying to dig Harry out. She first pried off Fred, but before she could peel off George, she stepped on something soft. Looking down, she saw that the soft thing was actually Ron!      Frantically grabbing his limp arm, she pulled him out and as soon as she did so, she saw a foot sticking out of the hole Ron had just emptied. Pulling on the foot, she began seeing the rest of a leg, then a rumpled shirt, and finally a tuft of black hair. She helped him stand up, Harry looking very ruffled, and looked amusingly at the mob Harry left a moment ago. 

"Um, excuse me? Missing someone?" Harry tapped Charlie's shoulder and waved sheepishly.

The Weasleys, finally realizing that someone was missing, turned around, all with equal expressions of shock and relief on their faces. 

Mrs.Weasley came up to Harry and hugged him tightly. Harry smiled, one he could take. She looked at him closely and asked, "How'd you get here?"

"I'll say how I got here if you tell me why you're here." Harry replied, waving his hands around to indicate this room.

"Ron didn't tell you!! Ohh, I'm going to get him, I'll make him maroon sweaters for the rest of his life!" Just as she said this, Ron woke up, still dizzy.

"I was hoping it would be a surprise! How was I supposed to know he wouldn't use the floo?" Ron retorted.

"I used a portkey, actually. I couldn't floo, the Dursleys boarded their fireplace up again. I showed up in a really weird room and didn't know where I was, so I wandered around until I found this room and you all tackled me. Now, again, where are we?"

This time, George spoke up. "Well, you see, Dad over there, the old chap, he was tinkling around with some muggle things, called Compoosers or something like that, and he finally made up this thing we like to call the Diabooth. He needed some funding, so we gave some of the money from our "private investor" and it took off. We now have plenty of money and we bought this here manor. Grand, isn't it? I reckon you came out in the Portkey room."

"Why is it so dark in there? It's sort of dreary down there."

At this, Ron spoke up. "We don't really have enough stuff to fill the place. We're filling it, but it's going slow." Ron now turned to Mrs. Weasley.

"Can I show Harry and Herm their rooms now?" 

"Yes, yes, of course! I'll get the house-elves to bring your trunks. Umm, Harry dear, where is your trunk?"

Harry looked through his pockets and pulled out a tiny trunk. 

" I-er… Dumbledore shrunk my trunk for me. He said one of you could unshrink it."

"Of course! Here, _Redureverso_!" With a sky blue light coming out of Mrs. Weasley's wand, hitting the trunk, the trunk popped and reverted to its original size.

"There. Done! Now, off you go. I'm sure Ron will catch you up."  

            The houseelves grabbed the trunks and popped off, while Ron led Harry and Hermione down the many corridors an stairs, finally stopping at a large door, labelled Hermione's room.

"This is your room Herm, Harry's is in the tower, it's just down there." He pointed to another door down the corridor. 

"I'm a bit over there", he said, pointing to another door, slightly in the opposite direction from Harry's. "And we have a common room in between the three. Harry, we should first unpack and then we can go down to the Quidditch pitch. Is that ok? The houseelves should have all your stuff in your rooms by now, and don't worry Herm, we're paying the ones that want it."

Ron led Hermione and Harry into a large room, covered completely in a deep red and gold, from floor to ceiling. Hermione's trunk was already on the table beside the large bed and the big windows were wide open, letting fresh air in. 

"This is wonderful! It's so big! Is there a library?" Hermione said, taking it all in.

Harry chuckled and Ron just looked at her strangely. "Of course there's a library, but why? We're on vacation! Books are for school, not for vacation. I have to show Harry his room, if you need anything, just ring the little bell."

Ron led Harry out of Hermione's room and Harry followed Ron to another door, this time with Harry's name on it.

They walked up a set of spiralling stairs into a circular room, surrounded completely by windows. It was decorated in the same way as Hermione's room and the windows here were open too. There was a small balcony off one of the two floor-to-ceiling windows opposite each other. 

When Harry saw this, he walked out and looked down, finally seeing the scenery. In the far distance, he could see the lights of a small village, and a large forest between here and the village. To the left, he could see a full-size Quidditch pitch and a large swimming pool was beside it. On the right, he could see what looked like a burnt-out ring in the grass. Wondering what it was, he pointed it out to Ron.

"Oh, that's the duelling ring. Of course, we can't use it now for magic, but we can use it for anything else that needs shields to keep spectators safe. By the way, did you see the school list this year? Focus stones, swords, what type of nutter teachers do we have now? We still have to go shopping for everything, since we can't use the Diabooth for swords or focus stones. We'll probably be going in a couple of days, you still have to get everything, right?"

"Actually, no, I got everything from Whinging Way, which is the little alley Whinging has, and the Diabooth, which it really great, by the way." 

"Really? Can you bring your sword and stuff down to the common room? I bet Herm'll want to see it too." Ron looked very excited and raced down before Harry could say a word.

*           *           *

            When Harry came down to the common room 30 minutes later, he could see Ron and Hermione waiting on the couch. 

            "Hi Ron! Hi Hermione! Ron, I brought the sword and my focus stone with me. Want to see them?" Harry walked over to where Ron and Hermione were sitting and sat down beside Ron. He passed Gryffindor's sword to Ron and placed the focus stone on the table. 

            "Is this-it can't be-can it?" Ron looked up at Harry,an expectant look on his face. Hermione in front of them, looked at him, quizzically.

            "Yes, Ron, it's the same sword from second year. Dumbledore told me it would be the only one that worked perfectly with me. Something about it choosing me.  Not bad, eh?"

            "Not bad?? NOT BAD??!!? This is GRYFFINDOR's sword, not just any old thing. Not bad…the git…" Ron mumbled off, occasionally mumbling something along similar lines.

            Meanwhile, Hermione was looking intently at the swirling light of the focus stone. She started reaching for it, but before her hand could get close enough, the stone let off a small tendril of light that struck Hermione's hand, which she quickly pulled back, rubbing the spot with her other hand.

            "Ow…I guess I should have known it would have done that, it is a life-stone, after all. Even normal stones give off a small shock when touched by someone other than their chosen. I should have remembered that. Stupid, Stupid me."

            "Herm, you aren't stupid, you should know that by now. Anyways, what's a life stone and what does it have to do with me?" Harry picked up the stone and started tossing it from hand to hand. 

            Hermione looked at Ron for a second and grinned. He was still looking wondrously at Gryffindor's sword. Shaking it off, she looked at Harry and replied.

"Your stone is a life-stone, Harry. The stone-carvers, who only come around once or twice a generation, and not even that often sometimes, put a bit of their essence into the stone.  They can only make one of these in a lifetime, and many don't choose to make one, as it takes away most of their magical power. Stone-carvers who don't put their essence in a stone always have a special skill, and have an extreme amount of magical talent.

 "The stones choose their master, and since they are only matched to one person on the entire world, it's extremely rare for someone to be chosen. When one gets chosen, they start going through some sort of transformation and if there is one, another life-stone holder goes to train them. That's all I know about focus stones, but then again, I've only done some light reading on them."

Ron looked up at this. "Light reading? How is all that 'light reading'?"

"Well Ron, some people actually **enjoy** reading, unlike you. All you care about is Quidditch, Quidditch, and more Quidditch!"

Harry could sense that this could become a full-blown fight, unless he intervened right now.

"Ron, can we go outside now? I need to warm-up for the season this year, I haven't flown for a year." 

Ron nodded and gave the sword back. Harry ran upstairs and put the sword and the stone away. He got dressed in his school Quidditch robes and grabbed his Firebolt. He went out to his balcony and mounted the broom. He jumped off and flew down to the balcony in the common room. He knocked on the window and waved, signalling that he would meet them down at the Quidditch pitch.

Harry started his warm-up by doing some shallow dives towards the walls of the manor, looping around his tower and the two smaller ones. Flying up to get a good look of the manor, he saw a very small resemblance to the old Burrow, except mostly made of red sandstone and on a much larger scale. 

Flying around the building one last time, he flew to the Quidditch pitch in a series of dives and loops. By now, his Firebolt was already back to its former state, not showing the year of non-use at all. 

When he got to the pitch, he was several hundred feet in the air, so he went into a steep dive, pulling out only a couple metres from the ground.

All the Weasley children were there, even Charlie and Bill. They had decided to take a vacation over the summer, due to the family's success. They all wore new Quidditch robes, except for Fred and George, who were wearing their Gryffindor robes.

Hermione of course, was standing to the side with a large book in her hands, waving at Harry. Harry wove back and turned to the group of Weasleys. 

"So, who's on which team?" Harry asked, sinking slowly to the ground and dismounting. 

"Um, let's see…You'll be seeker for the red team, Ron'll be keeper, Fred'll be beater and Gin'll be chaser. The gold team'll have me as seeker, Bill as keeper, George as beater, and…who's going to be chaser??" Charlie looked about, and spotted Hermione. Grinning evilly, he climbed up on his Starbolt (an older broom by the makers of the Firebolt, it was specially made with seekers in mind) and flew towards her in a blur, turning back around with Hermione in his left arm. 

Hermione was kicking and screaming, but when Charlie dropped her in the circle of players, Bill shoving a broom in her hands, she sighed and asked, "So, how do you fly this thing?".

They all quickly gave her a crash course in flying and the basics of Quidditch. She was actually quite good at flying once she was taught, and even she decided that flying was enjoyable.

So they were soon in the air, playing with a regulation set of Quidditch balls, Harry finally catching the elusive snitch almost 2 hours later, after several near misses. Hermione wasn't bad as chaser at all, even though she didn't get anything past Ron, who had a good shot at getting the keeper position that was vacated by Oliver Wood two years ago.

They flew around for the next hour, doing some acrobatics from Charlie's brief stint as an Aeronautic Acrobat, the official stunt team of the NQL, the National Quidditch League, before Mrs. Weasley called them in. 

They all had lunch, where Harry got stuffed as a very large turkey would, on the account that Mrs. Weasley thought he was too thin. Hermione made Ron lead her to the library once they were finished, with Harry waddling behind, not feeling very well.

When they got to the library, Ron dramatically started humming and opened the door. When Hermione looked in, she gasped. The large library was airy and spacious, with small modified muggle conveniences stuck in various corners, like a computer-like catalogue or an auto-sorting machine. There were several large wooden tables and large puffy armchairs. Light was shining through the many clandestine windows, so the library had an airy look to it,

dust motes floating in the air. Hidden between two stocky bookcases full of very old books, there was a small door, looking at least as old as the books.

"I found this when I was looking around for information on how to make your trunk, Harry. I don't think anyone else knows about it, not even Fred and George, I think they're afraid of books or something. Anyways, do you guys have your wands?"

Both Harry and Hermione nodded, wondering what Ron was getting at. Ron pressed in a knot on the wooden door and rubbed another. The door creaked open and revealed a dark room. Ron shoved them in and lit his wand.

"How… How is that possible? We'll get caught by the ministry!" Hermione looked very shocked. 

"Nah, there's shielding here like you'd never believe. No one can track it. It was sort of messy, so I shoved everything into that corner." He said, pointing toward a corner with several odd-looking boxes. "I tried opening them, but I couldn't. Anyways, what do we want to do next?"

"Harry, do you have that book I gave you? Maybe we could start some of it. " Hermione asked Harry excitedly. "Oooh! This going to be so much fun!"

Harry, who had been looking through many spells over the summer, used a form of the summoning charm that used principles similar to apparition. The book appeared in his hand and he handed it to Hermione, who accepted it dumbly.

"Harry! That sort of spell takes tons of practice! How'd you do it on your first try?" 

Harry decided to tell them about the necklace, it had been glowing through his shirt slightly anyways. "Well, you see, Dumbledore gave me this necklace on my birthday. It masks any magical activity coming from me, therefore, presto! Magic over the holidays! I've been practicing a bunch of duelling spells and counters. Dumbledore told me they're restarting the duelling club."

"Dumbledore basically let you use magic over the holidays? Wow. Well, now we all can, but still, wow." Ron shook his head and walked over to Hermione, who was sitting on one of the boxes. Harry followed, sitting on one of the other boxes.

"Well, let's get started then, shall we?"

*           *           *

The Chapter Has Now Ended


	4. The Prefect Badge

Harry Potter and the School of Change (4/?) **Author Name:**  Wavlyn Warfir 

**Author E-Mail:** agathad@look.ca

**Category:** Action/Adventure

**Keywords:** 5th year, Harry, Special Powers, Hogwarts, Order of the Phoenix

**Rating:** PG-13 (just to be safe)

**Spoilers:** All Four Books

**Summary:** During the summer, Harry is chosen by a special stone. Once at Hogwarts, he learns about the currents of magic. Will this help him defeat Voldemort or will it lead to his own destruction?

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. May also have similar theories of magic introduced in the books of Mercedes Lackey. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 4: The Prefect Badge 

            The Animagus training was not going well, for Harry anyways. Ron and Hermione were right on schedule with the book, but when Harry tried anything in the book, it didn't work. None of them knew what was wrong, even when they looked through most of the Weasleys library. They had decided not to worry just yet, as they would look in the school library later. 

            Today they were going to Diagon Alley, to get some of their school supplies. They had already gotten most of their supplies via the Diabooth, but they needed to go personally to get the focus stone and sword. 

            After Breakfast, they all surrounded the fireplace, Mr. Weasley holding a large pot full of a glittering powder.

            "Ok, everyone! Floo time! Bill, you go first, then Harry'll go, then Ron and Hermione, followed by Fred and George, Go to Diagon Alley you two, then Charlie and Percy will go with Ginny, then I'll follow in behind." Mr. Weasley handed the pot to Bill who took a large pinch and threw it in the fire, handing it to Harry before walking in the fire and saying calmly, Diagon Alley.

            "Now Harry, if you take more, it'll be easier to get to your destination, so take a good wallop, will you?" Mr. Weasley looked a bit worried, since last time Harry flooed to Diagon Alley; he ended up in Knockturn Alley, 

            Harry nodded and took a small handful, handing the pot to Ron, then throwing the powder into the fire. The fire turned an emerald green and when Harry stepped in, the fire felt like a comfortable warm breeze. When Harry said Diagon Alley, before he knew what happened, he was dumped out of a large fireplace, landing on a large cushion. He saw Bill looming above him, hand stretched out to help Harry up.

            Harry got up with the help of Bill and when Ron shot out of the fireplace, he was just finishing brushing all the soot off. He helped Ron get up and handed him the brush. 

            Soon, the whole group was outside in the warm sunshine, walking towards an old focus-stone store. As Harry walked in, a very old man rushed up to him, poking him several times with his wand and finally nodding. 

            Behind him, Ron and Hermione were looking at him strangely, wondering what the old man poked him for. Harry looked back, and seeing their faces, shrugged and walked over to them.

            "I wonder what that was for…" He asked in an annoyed voice, rubbing his cheek where he was poked.

            They shrugged and walked up to the old man. The old man quickly went through all of them and soon they all had stones. 

            Ron had a deep red ruby in the shape of a cone, Hermione had an amber one, which was a half-sphere. Fred and George had both gotten very different stones, Fred a pyramid of light blue, and George a cylinder of dark green. Ginny, who was only a fourth-year, didn't need to get one, so they all walked out, chatting about what sort of sword they would get. 

            They walked down the alley, past several shops, until Mr. Weasley stopped at an old iron sign, which said "Swindler's Swords and Supplies".  They all walked in slowly, looking around the small dark shop. The store had a quality in it, which made you want to be silent. 

            They all walked through the spooky shop to a large glass countertop, where one could see kits for sword maintenance. On the countertop, you could see a small display of various books on swords. 

            A brightly dressed young man walked out and introduced himself as Sam Swindler the third. He looked at Mr. Weasley, asking if all of them would need swords.

            "All of them except Harry will need them. He has a sword already. He may want to buy a maintenance kit though, right Harry?" Mr. Weasley looked at Harry, who nodded and also grabbed a book on Mythical Swords, putting it on the counter.

            Sam looked at him for a moment, before turning to Fred and George. He took a clear round sphere out and asked each of them to hold it. Both Fred and George had the same colour, a deep bluish purple. 

            Sam nodded and took the sphere back, before turning to go back inside the back room.  He was soon back with two boxes that obviously held swords. Sam handed each of them a box, and turned to Ron and Hermione, starting the process all over again.

            When all the swords and supplies were paid for, the walked back out of the store, into the welcoming sunshine. Harry, who had brought his bottomless bag, put all the swords in it and they walked off to a small expensive restaurant. 

            Soon, they had all stuffed themselves and were walking towards Madam Malkin's. When they walked in, Harry was immediately surrounded by several young female assistants, who were dragging him off. Harry tried fighting them off, but it was no use. He waved to Ron and Hermione, but stopped and glared at them, as they were both snickering at Harry's dilemma. 

            When Harry came back, with many bags of clothes, all the Weasleys were waiting for him. Fred and George were snickering and Ron and Hermione were both looking like they were trying very hard not to laugh. Harry was already beet red and mumbled to them to stop, brushing past them and walking towards the Floo station, head bowed down. 

            They quickly followed him out and soon were back at the Weasley Manor, which they named the Hovel. 

            Harry, followed by Ron and Hermione, was soon upstairs, dumping all the clothes he had gotten into the trunk. He had left his sword out, so he opened the room compartment and climbed in, waving for Ron and Hermione to come in. 

            When they came in, Hermione looked at all the books on the bookcase and Ron looked at the box of Wizardly Wheezes with wonder. He walked over to the box and saw a letter on the top. Ron looked over at Harry, who was showing Hermione the different books he had gotten, and decided to read the letter. After all, if he didn't want it read, it wouldn't be out in the open, right? 

            Suddenly, a very happy Ron tackled Harry. Both Harry and Hermione looked at Ron strangely, Hermione finally pulling Ron off after some struggle.

            "Uh, Ron? Why did you just attack Harry?" Hermione inquired.

            Ron just shoved the letter into Hermione's hand and began jumping around. Hermione quickly read over the letter and looked up at Harry.

            "You gave them your tournament money, didn't you?" Harry just nodded and smiled.

            "I didn't think all this would happen, I just gave it to them because with the up-coming war, we'll need something to keep our spirits up, right?" By now, Ron had stopped jumping around and turned to Harry.

            "Anything you want, anything you need, just ask. You need bookcases, come on!" Ron pulled them out of the trunk and slammed it closed. He picked it up and pranced out the room, Harry and Hermione both looking shocked at Ron.

            Harry snapped out of his shock first, and dragged Hermione after Ron. They ran after him, going through several passages and running up more than a few staircases. 

Finally, Ron stopped at a ladder going into the ceiling. He dropped the trunk on the ground and scrambled up the ladder. He opened the trapdoor and climbed in. Harry looked at Hermione, shrugged, and grabbed his trunk. He looked up the ladder and climbed up, one hand holding onto the trunk. Harry dumped the trunk on the dusty floor and looked around, moving away from the trapdoor when Hermione's head popped through the floor. 

They were in a very dusty room, full of very old looking furniture. Ron quickly started pulling large pieces of furniture in front of Harry. Harry and Hermione quickly sat on a large red couch and watched Ron with interest. 

Soon enough, there was a pile of very dusty, very old, and very ornate furniture. Ron stuffed what he could into the room and then made Harry shrink everything else so they could fit it in through the trunk's opening. After everything was in the trunk, Ron carried the trunk down to the workroom in the library. When they were down in the workroom, all three clambered in.

When the three had unshrunk everything, they started moving everything around. Everything was very dusty, so when they were finished, they were covered with dust. Harry performed a quick cleaning charm on them, but it only cleared a bit of the dust away. Hermione looked at him disapprovingly and cast the charm over all three of them, making them much cleaner than before.

The room itself looked much better than before. The old bookcase was thrown out of the room, as were the other blocks of wood. The new bookcases were a lot sturdier and looked better too. Ron had found a screen and had placed it across the room, so it because more like 2 very small rooms, a bedroom and a sitting room. In the bedroom, they had put in a bed much like the beds at Hogwarts and a dresser with a very smart talking mirror. The mirror acted like a very smart kind old lady, one that would give you a large pile of candy if you visited. 

The sitting room had the 2 bookcases, 3 large armchairs surrounding a small coffee table, and a large table in the back to work on. Ron had to enlarge the room, using a charm he had seen his father using. It didn't work very well the first time, but when all three did the charm, the room doubled in size.

When they had finished arranging the room and cleaning everything, they all collapsed on the armchairs.

"There, least I could do!" Ron said happily, looking very satisfied.

Harry just looked at him and thanked the two of them for helping with everything. " Maybe we should test out those Wheezes on Fred and George? They did tell me to give me their opinions on them and I can't do that if I don't test them out, right?"

They all looked at the large table, where they had carefully placed the pranks in another box, and nodded, grins on Ron and Harry's faces, while Hermione just looked at them disapprovingly. Seeing her face, Ron began trying to get Hermione to join in.

"Come on Herm, we aren't at school yet! We need to get it out of our system before we have to start acting all perfectly. Please??"

This seemed to make Hermione's mind up. She walked over to the box and carefully began looking at the different pranks. Harry and Ron immediately joined her and they soon had the perfect prank in mind.

*           *            *

            Over breakfast that morning, everything was perfectly normal, that is, until the houseelves brought out the bacon. Fred and George both took a large helping of bacon, oblivious to the looks that the trio was giving them. 

            As they took their first bite, they noticed something was wrong with it. They tried to spit it out, but it was too late. It started by making the two jump around the table quacking like ducks, then there was a pop and a boom and standing there were two braying donkeys. By this time, everyone was laughing, some of them rolling on the floor. The trio was laughing with the rest of them, while the donkeys slowly turned back into Fred and George, who were staring at Harry. They knew who it was, as he was the only one they had given the Braying Bacon to. They both took a small notepad out of their back pockets and consulted, writing furiously on the paper.

            "Hmmm…tastes a bit wrong, shouldn't have the duck, response time a bit quick…" The two of them mumbled as they walked out of the dining room. The rest of the Weasleys turned to stare at Harry, Hermione and Ron, who just looked sheepishly back. 

            They quickly finished breakfast and ran up, back into their respective rooms, to start packing everything up, as they would be going to Hogwarts early tomorrow. Harry had moved all his muggle clothes into the dresser in his room and placed all his robes in their former compartment. He also packed all his unusual things that he needed within reach in one of the other compartments. He had put a lot of his things into the room, so the compartments were comfortably filled, not overly stuffed. Harry kept the clothes he needed for tomorrow out and spent the rest of the day with Ron and Hermione, duelling in the workroom. 

            The next day, the trio and Ginny looked amusingly at Fred and George, who were rushing all over the manor, looking for things they had forgotten. Soon enough though, everyone was standing in front of the fireplace, as they were flooing to Platform 9 and ¾. 

            "Be careful you two! Your NEWTs are this year and you'll really need to work hard. I don't want you turning the whole school green or anything, you hear?" Mrs. Weasley lectured the twins for several minutes, then hugged them tightly. Next, she turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. 

            "I'm so proud of all of you! You're all prefects! You'd all better study hard for the OWLs and not give Charlie any trouble. Oops! I wasn't supposed to say that. Nevermind that, just be careful!" She blushed and bustled away to Ginny.

            The three of them turned to Bill, questioning looks on their faces.

            "Ok, ok, I'll tell you, just don't say anything to anyone else! I'm going to teach Care of Magical Creatures for a while before Hagrid comes back from his mission. Don't tell anyone else, remember!" Bill looked a bit angry with himself, but he said good-bye and walked through the fireplace after Fred and George.

            "Bye, Mrs. Weasley, Mr.Weasley! Thank you for letting me stay!" Harry and Hermione smiled happily and turned to follow Ron, who had just left. 

            A very nauseating trip, and they were soon on the platform, scarlet train right in front of them. Ron dragged them onto the train and they were soon on the Prefect car. Taking the compartment labelled '5th year Gryffindor', the three stored their trunks and picked up the letter sitting on the small build-in table in the compartment. The compartment was much larger then the normal ones, and everything was decorated in Gryffindor colours.  

            Grinning, Ron and Harry surrounded Hermione, who was opening the letter.

_Welcome 5th Year Gryffindor Prefects!_

_            You are to be at the front of the Prefect car before the train begins to move, in your Hogwarts robes for the Prefect Ceremony. You will accept the prefect badge and rule book in an acceptable fashion. When finished, you are to make a round of the train, looking for any disturbances. I wish you well in your new prefect duties._

_                                                            -Minerva McGonagall_

_                                                                        Head of Gryffindor House_

            Ron and Harry carried their clothes into Harry's trunk, while Hermione changed in the compartment. They quickly changed and were all soon at the front of the car, where a small platform was set up, along with more than a few chairs. They walked to the chairs designated for the three of them, noticing that several professors and prefects were sitting behind them. 

            When everyone was seated, Dumbledore walked out of a small, unnoticed door behind the stage and began to speak.

            "Welcome all of you, prefects old and new. Today you will be joining a respected group of people. Many prefects go on to high positions in the outside world, and I wish you all the luck.

            This is the first time we have had 3 prefects in a year for 30 years. This is due to the rise of the dark arts and prefects are needed to improve student morale. 

            Your duties as a prefect are very important to us. You are the intermediary between the professors and the students. You are to report whenever there is trouble, stop any disturbances throughout the school, and, if necessary, protect the student body from danger. You will be getting extra training throughout the year, which you will hopefully never use. 

            Now, to all those things, you will need help. This help will come in the shape of your badge and your rulebook. These badges are one of Rowena Ravenclaw's contributions to the school. When you come up here, you will touch this orb," He revealed a deep blue orb from under the podium "And it will give you an official Hogwarts prefect badge. This badge is very advanced magic. You may touch it whenever you need a teacher's help, and the teacher will be notified. It will notify you in much the same way. If there is a disturbance in the school and you are the closest, it will speak to you.  This may seem strange, but you will understand when you are called. It may also speak to you if you yourself need help.

            The rulebook will be your reference throughout your prefect career. It will shrink with a tap of your wand and reappear when you need it. When you open it, it will flip immediately to the page needed. Now, with these tools I will give you, I wish you the best of luck."

            Everyone clapped while Professor Sprout came up and called out the 3 Hufflepuff prefects of 5th year. They each received a rulebook from Professor Sprout and touched the orb of blue Dumbledore was holding. As they touched it, they each got a strange expression on their face, but after they let go, glimmering prefect badge and all, they walked calmly to their seats, slight smiles on their faces. 

            Soon the Ravenclaw and Slytherin prefects were announced and, to their disgust, Malfoy was one of the Slytherin prefects. They didn't have time to ponder this, as they were called up immediately after the Slytherin prefects. 

            As he received the rulebook from Professor McGonagall, he looked up and saw her looking down at him, a big smile on her face and tearing eyes. He was sure he saw her wink at him, but there was no time to think about this, as he walked up to the blue orb a proud Dumbledore was holding and placed his hand on it. 

            : Well, Well! I was wondering when I was going to meet you! By the way, I'm Farione, your very own Prefect badge. I bet it's going to be fun being your badge! Well, anyways, time to get off this old stage! Come on, hurry up! What, you've never had a piece of metal talk to you in your head? Wait, you haven't! Well, I'll have fun with you! : 

            Harry, looking very shocked, walked off the podium and back to his own seat. As soon as he was seated, everyone started clapping politely as Dumbledore put the orb back under the table and spoke up.

            "I should let you get acquainted with the badges, but first, you must walk through the train, taking care of any disturbances. Now, off you get!" He waved them off and walked back through the small door in the back.

            "Well, that was strange! My badge started talking to me, but it seemed a bit grumpy. It's name is Youle." Ron got up, asking them.

            "Well, mine's very nice, and doesn't sound like yours at all. Her name is Opvine. Harry, what's yours?" Hermione answered bossily.

            "Hmm? Oh. Mine's name is Farione. She seems nice enough, but keeps saying that she'll have fun with me. Frankly, I think this is all rather weird. I wonder if we're allowed magic right now?" Harry asked absentmindedly.

            : Well, how else are you supposed to 'calm the disturbances'? You don't need permission, I see… Oh, we will have fun together. That Fred and George need a good prank to be played on them…" :

            She's letting me pull pranks??? Isn't she a prefect badge??

            : Well, fight fire with fire, as I always say. Anyways, as long as you don't get caught, you don't get in trouble, right?? :

            Harry just looked shocked, not noticing the hand Hermione was waving in front of him until she poked him with her finger.

            "Earth to Harry! Harry, what did your badge say? Mine just grumbled and told me to ask someone else. Herm was having a jolly conversation with her badge until just now." Ron waited impatiently for an answer.

            "Oh? Oh! Yeah, we're allowed. My badge also told me that we'd be allowed to play pranks as long as we don't get caught. She told me to fight fire with fire when it came to Fred and George. Not bad, eh?" Harry grinned and stood up.

            "Your PREFECT badge told you to play pranks? That can't be right…Oh, wait, nevermind. Opvine just told me there's always a prankster or two in the badges." Hermione looked at Harry's badge disapprovingly, and stood up.

            Ron stood up and they started their patrol of the last quarter of the train. They were soon finished, nothing much happening, just saying hello to everyone and finding Neville's toad.

            Harry, Ron, and Hermione soon had an avid discussion going, arguing about the new teachers, with comments from all three badges, even Ron's, which had woken up a bit and seemed a bit nicer.

*           *            *

The Chapter has now Ended


	5. Meet the Teachers

Harry Potter and the School of Change (5/?) **Author Name:**  Wavlyn Warfir 

**Author E-Mail:** agathad@look.ca

**Category:** Action/Adventure

**Keywords:** 5th year, Harry, Special Powers, Hogwarts, Order of the Phoenix

**Rating:** PG-13 (just to be safe)

**Spoilers:** All Four Books

**Summary:** During the summer, Harry is chosen by a special stone. Once at Hogwarts, he learns about the currents of magic. Will this help him defeat Voldemort or will it lead to his own destruction?

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. May also have similar theories of magic introduced in the books of Mercedes Lackey. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 5: Meet the Teachers 

         The trio were now sitting in the carriage, after making sure everyone got off the train. They had quickly finished, but they would probably miss the sorting anyways. As they got out of the carriage and to the small door inside the large door, they could just hear the Sorting Hat finish with Zarish, Antony, who went into Hufflepuff. Ron started running up the stairs to get to the Great Hall, towards the food that had most likely just appeared, as they could hear the din of all the students old and new talking about their summers. 

         As they crept in through a side door Farione mentioned, they saw several redheads sitting at the closest table, which happened to be the Gryffindor table. Sliding in beside the Weasleys, they sat down and automatically started grabbing for the food.

         Soon they were very stuffed and satisfied, waiting for Dumbledore's speech. They didn't have to wait long, several minutes after they had finished, Dumbledore stood up and everybody promptly shut up.

         "Now, as you are all well stuffed, I would like to proceed with this years announcements. First, the Forbidden Forest is just that, Forbidden. This is for your own safety, as I doubt you would like to be eaten by the assorted creatures of the forest. 

         Next, I would like to introduce the new professors, 3 this year in fact. Hagrid has taken temporary leave, and we therefore need another Care of Magical Creatures professor. I would like you all to welcome Charlie Weasley!" Charlie quickly stood up, grinning, before quickly sitting back down, among the polite clapping from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, whooping and whistles from the Gryffindor table, and a mixed reaction from the Slytherin table, as they were wondering if they should clap because Hagrid was gone, or to boo, since a former Gryffindor took up the place.

         "Yes, Yes, we are all excited to have Mr. Weasley back. He has been studying abroad for several years, working with dragons. I hope your lessons with him will be educational and interesting.

         Now, we all know about the jinxed Defence Against the Dark Arts position. We can't seem to get the right professor for the job, it seems. I hope this next person will stay for longer then a year. Please welcome Ms. Ashley Salcez!"

         A rather dumpy, dark woman stood up, glared at everyone, and sat back down. There were a few scattered claps, mostly from the Slytherin table, as she looked quite a bit like a Slytherin.

         "Great, Another Snape. Do we really need two?", Ron whispered, sounding rather depressed.  Harry just nodded and sighed quietly.

         "Now, now, I'm sure you'll warm up when you have your first class with her. 

         I have decided to hold another class, of Foreign Magic, as when you go out into the world, you will meet other types of wizards. Our professor for this has a surprising amount of experience for one so young. She has been teaching at Gryphon Institute of Magic for the past 2 years, and we hope you welcome her, Ms. Jennifer Ashten, your professor for Foreign Magic. "

         Everyone politely clapped as a mostly ordinary woman stood up. She had brown hair and wore simple dark blue robes. Her brown hair had large streaks of white, making her look older then she probably was. Her eyes were a bright blue, similar to Dumbledore's, twinkling merrily. She smiled, waved, and sat back down. 

         "Now, as you have all met the new professors, to the next announcement, which you may not like very much. Quidditch will not be played this year, I am sorry to say." A loud chorus of boos followed this announcement, as Dumbledore looked at all of them sadly. "Yes, yes, I know this is horrible. This is due to safety precautions, and we may start Quidditch again if the threat lessens. To compensate for this, we will be reinstating the Duelling Club and will be having a tournament with the North American school, Gryphon Institute of Magic, from which our new professor is from. I know the Triwizard tournament last year ended with the tragic death of a student, but I seriously doubt the same will happen this year. We need allies at this time, and G.R.I.M. is the stronghold of many powerful wizards. We will be sending the Duelling Club to G.R.I.M., where they will receive lessons from the professors there. The Duelling Club is open to all students, and I wish them the best of luck. The sign-up sheet will be up sometime tomorrow.

Now, with that final announcement, the prefects will lead you to your rooms now, as you are probably all sleepy from all the wonderful food. " He sat down and watched as the prefects rounded up all the first years and began walking toward their respective common rooms. 

         _: Harry, time for your first real prefect duty at the school, trying to control the little buggers. The password for the Gryffindor common room is Canary Creams, by the way. :_ Farione seemed rather happy, as Harry and the rest of the prefects tried to round up the Gryffindor first years to their common room.

         "Were we ever that small and annoying, Harry?" Ron grabbed the collar of a tiny boy looking wondrously at a picture of two wizards duelling.

         "Well, the rest of us were that small, not you though. I remember you being taller then the prefects who led us around.  I don't think we were that annoying though." Harry opened a door and led the first years through.

         "Yes you were. I remember before we were friends, you were very annoying." Hermione pulled out a cute little girl out of a disappearing step.

         Ron and Harry just huffed and led the first years to stand in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

         Harry looked at all the bright faces and smiled. "Now, this is the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. To get in, just tell her the password and she'll let you in. The password's Canary Creams. Any questions?" 

         "Are you really **the** Harry Potter??" A little girl nervously asked.

         Harry sighed, but nodded. "Yes, I am, but it doesn't mean anything. Now, when we get in, we'll help you all get comfortable, ok?" 

         They all nodded and soon they were all in their dorms. Harry and Ron, being the youngest prefects, got to go help the boys get settled in, which was not an easy task.

         "Where's my Mouchi? I WANT MY MOUCHI!!" A young boy was running around, looking for his "Mouchi". 

         Ron looking rather confused, helped the little boy find "Mouchi", which happened to be a ragged stuffed teddy bear. 

         After finally settling the boys in, Harry and Ron walked down, looking just as ragged as "Mouchi".  

         Seeing Hermione sitting by the fire, they dragged themselves over to her and collapsed onto 2 large puffy armchairs.

         "Having a bit of trouble with the boys? They seemed like such darlings." Hermione snickered and grinned at the ragged boys. "The girls were so sweet, they weren't trouble at all."

         "Bah, you didn't have to look for Mouchi…" Ron began to mumble, but was so tired, he nodded off before he finished the sentence. While Ron was talking, Harry had fallen asleep, to tired to think about anything.

*        *        *

It was dark. Very, very dark. You could feel the damp through to your bones. Drip, Drip, Drip. Off in what seemed the distance, a weak light flickered on.

         "What have you brought, Lucius?" A hissing voice, like an impersonation of death itself. 

         "Master, We have begun the corruption of our agent at the school. We will soon be ready to begin attacks. The boy is happy, nothing has happened, lulling him into a false sense of security. Your plan with his friends is going well, no one suspects of the importance of where they live. The death eater recruiting is going well, we have most of the Slytherin batch from last year." The man named Lucius was hiding the fear behind his voice well; he seemed to know something bad would happen to him.

         "Most? I was expecting all! You will pay for this. Crucio!" A scream sliced through the air, magnified by what seemed to be a network of caves. After several minutes of this, the screaming stopped, replaced by a pitiful whimpering.

         "Wormtail! Take him away! Bring him to the cells and let him go in...let's say a week." A sinister laugh rent through the air, drowning out sounds of a scuttling and dragging of a body.

*        *        *

         The next day, Harry remembered having a vague dream about Voldemort. It had included Lucius Malfoy and caves. When he told this to Ron and Hermione, both of them told him to go tell Dumbledore. Harry just mumbled yes and finished his breakfast. Waiting for Ron to finish, they were handed the 5th year timetables to pass out. Harry grabbed theirs and passed them down the table. Handing Ron his, he looked at his own and groaned. They had DADA with the Snape Lady first thing. 

         "Snape Lady first thing. Does the world have no justice??" Ron groaned and stopped eating his scrambled eggs.         Ron, who didn't have much of an appetite anymore, got up and sulked off towards the Gryffindor common room, before Hermione stopped him and pointed toward the timetable. 

         DADA is wands only today.

         "We wouldn't have time to get our stuff anyway, class is in 2 minutes!" Harry and Hermione started running towards the DADA classroom, Ron just behind them. 

         When they got there, the door was open, but no professor in sight. They could hear their classmates gossiping inside, so they quietly slipped in and sat in the back. Hermione looked around quizzically, the professor was a couple minutes late already. She stated this and received a series of grunts and shrugs in reply.

         A canary yellow bolt suddenly flashed through the air and hit Lavender, who shrieked and started running all around the classroom. Her classmates seeing this, immediately panicked and chaos ensued.  When Harry saw a blue bolt shooting towards him, he whipped out his wand and quickly put up a basic shield, the bolt turning on itself and shooting towards what ever shot it. 

A loud whistle sounded and in the middle of the room, Professor Salcez was standing calmly among the scattered students, who had frozen when the whistle sounded. She incidentally, had blue hair, which was the exact same colour of the bolt that had shot towards Harry. She turned to Harry and smiled.

         "Well done, Mr. Potter. You were the only one to think in the situation and attempt to defend yourself. 10 points to Gryffindor. " Ignoring looks of shock, she righted her desk, which had fallen when Lavender crashed into it, and leaned on it.

"I have lesson plans from the past 4 years and am rather disappointed in the professors before. Professor Lupin did quite well, as did Professor Moody, but neither of them taught you to be ready for any attack, both muggle and magical, anytime, any place. I would think Moody would have taught you that, but I guess he didn't. From now on, I'll be leaving clues in this room to where you will all go to have class. It may be anywhere, inside or out. We will be doing magical duelling until Christmas, then muggle methods for the rest of the year.   Remember, you have OWLs this year, so you are reminded to study very hard this year. I will be spending a very small amount on each unit, no more, hopefully less. There will be a test on the unit at the end, both practical and written. As we have a duelling club and tournament this year, I hope you all enter. " She assigned a bit of reading from Practical Defence and lectured them on the basic rules of duelling, asking several questions along the way. By the end of class, Gryffindor had earned 15 more points and Ravenclaw had earned 10 points.

         "Well, she wasn't that bad, a little on the nutter side for attacking us, but I guess she was trying to prove a point. Where'd you learn that shield charm, Harry?" Ron and Harry had looked at their timetables and found that they had Ancient Runes next. They had finally decided that Divination was a waste of time, so they changed to Ancient Runes, where they might actually learn something useful. 

         Harry shrugged and stopped at the small group of 3rd years in front of the Ancient Runes classroom. "I was looking on duelling stuff in the books I got and found it somewhere. I found some other stuff too."

         Just then, Professor Vetus, professor of Ancient Runes, walked up to them and grinned. "Hehe, finally decided Divination's junk? Good. You won't have to catch up as much. I'm hoping to have you up to 5th year by Christmas." With the toothy grin plastered on his face, he opened the door to a very dusty, very large room full of stone slabs and little else, even the professor's desk was a large stone slab of sandstone, runes engraved all over it.

         "Now, welcome to Ancient Runes. This class doesn't usually have a very large workload, so you can all relax. Now, will all of you sit on those slabs over there, if you please?" All of the students scuttled over to the slabs in the middle of the room and sat on one each.

         "Good, good. Now, stand up and look at the rune you were sitting on. Try to find it in your Rune Dictionary." They all took out their dictionaries and soon, all of them were sitting on their slabs, waiting for the professor to give their next instructions. 

         "Now, who ever has the same rune as you will be your partner for the next while. " Harry looked around for someone with the same rune as him and saw Ron looking excited. Looking where Ron was sitting, they saw they had the same rune and grinned.

         "Ah good, you both got the same rune. I was hoping you would, as I will be giving you extra work to catch up to the 5th years. I'll be telling your friend Hermione to help you a bit, so it won't be that bad. Just be ready for a bit of extra work. There will be a Diabooth in the school soon, so I will have to ask you to get these books when it gets here."  He handed them a book list and turned back to the rest of the class.  He set them all to work on translating a slab of runes, with help of the dictionary. Every time that someone solved a stone, they burst in laughter, as they were translating very funny jokes. 

All too soon, class was over and they were walking down to lunch with Hermione, who had met up with them after her Arithmancy class. 

"Finally you decided to stop taking that crock with "professor" Trelawney. I really wonder why you didn't stop earlier. I still think you should of taken Arithmancy, but I guess Ancient Runes is okay too.  How'd you like Professor Vetus? He's nice, isn't he?" Hermione looked very happy that they weren't taking Divination anymore.

"Yes, he even told us he'll tell you to help us. He's trying to make us catch up to 5th year, I don't know how we'll be able to, but he said it won't be too hard." Harry seemed a bit nervous about the prospect of catching up on 2 years of work.

"He's right, it won't be that hard at all. Ancient Runes always has had a pretty light workload. It's mostly memorizing of the different runes. I know for a fact that both of you have a decent enough memory, so I wouldn't worry. Did you know Neville is doing Ancient Runes and isn't doing bad at all? And you know he had a terrible memory, so I doubt you'll have trouble." 

: You know, she's right. I'll be helping along the way too, so don't worry at all. Now, I would be worrying about your next class, as it's Potions with Snape: 

Harry groaned loudly and Ron and Hermione just stared at him. "Farione just told me that we have Snape next." They all groaned and quickly finished lunch, hoping they would not be late for Snape's lesson. 

Walking down into the Potions Dungeon, they saw that they were early and that only a couple Gryffindors were in the room. Sitting in the back, they pulled out their books and cauldrons, which Harry had been carrying in his bottomless bag.

"You know, I'm surprised we haven't seen Malfoy ye-" Ron cut off as he saw Draco Malfoy walk in. 

"Speak of the Devil, or Malfoy, same thing." Ron groaned and put his head on the desk as Malfoy walked towards them.

"Well well, if it isn't Mudblood, Potty, and Weasel? Finally got some money Weasel? Guess all of them put together could beg for a large amount of money, hmm?" Hearing Snape's footsteps on the stone, he smirked and sauntered off to the front of the room.

As he sat down, Professor Snape walked in, looking slightly harried and annoyed. He walked to the front of the room and glared at everyone.

"I will not take any of your laziness this year. We are having the OWLs this year, which I doubt many of you to pass." He glared again, this time at the Gryffindors, and began writing on the board.

*        *        *

The Chapter has now Ended 


End file.
